Kristi Noem defends committee attendance record

Matt Varilek: She's missed meetings on Native American issues

Sep. 26, 2012

Kristi Noem and Matt Varilek are running for U.S. House.

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Trying to persuade voters to vote against Rep. Kristi Noem in the November election, her Democratic challenger Matt Varilek this week attacked Noem for poor attendance on the congressional subcommittee dealing with Native American issues.

Noem didn’t dispute Varilek’s claim she missed 17 out of 22 meetings of the House Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs, but said she was doing more important work for the state during many of those meetings.

“That is of course a terrible record,” Varilek said. “We simply cannot accept that kind of performance from our one member of Congress.”

Varilek said his staff compiled Noem’s attendance record after the two candidates were asked about tribal issues during an Argus Leader debate Monday.

Noem, a Republican, dismissed the attacks as a “false issue.”

“I always prioritize my meetings, and put serving the best interests of South Dakotans over attending some subcommittee hearings that will have no impact on our state,” Noem said.

Of the 17 native subcommittee meetings Varilek accused Noem of missing, Noem’s staff highlighted four where she said she was doing more important things: hearings on May 26 and June 22, 2011, where Noem was at a different committee, a Nov. 3, 2011, meeting where Noem was at a meeting about the Lewis & Clark water system, and an April 19 meeting where Noem was speaking on the House floor.

Her staff also said six of the meetings Noem didn’t attend involved tribes from other states: the June 22 meeting and five others.

“When you serve on three major committees and nine subcommittees, there’s usually always conflicts,” she said. “I have to decide where to go to be more effective for South Dakota.”

That’s five meetings Noem attended, four for which Noem identified a conflict, five more Noem said were unimportant and eight her staff did not account for, out of 22 total meetings.

Varilek said members of Congress shouldn’t just attend hearings dealing with issues specifically related to their states.

“If members of Congress only went to committees when their own state is affected directly, South Dakota-based committee meetings would be empty except for her,” Varilek said.

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The South Dakota Republican Party also came to Noem’s defense, saying Sen. Tim Johnson only attended two of the 16 2012 oversight and legislative hearings of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, of which he is a member.

Perry Plumart, a Johnson spokesman, said Johnson attended several of the meetings Republicans said he missed, though he didn’t provide specifics Wednesday.

Plumart also said Johnson frequently is leading meetings of the Senate Banking Committee or the subcommittee on appropriations for military construction and veterans affairs, both of which he chairs.

“You know where he is. He’s doing South Dakota’s and the nation’s business as the chairman of his committees,” Plumart said.

Varilek, a former staffer for Johnson, said he’s focusing on Noem.

“I haven’t examined other members of Congress, whether the other members of our delegation or elsewhere, except on those committees where my opponent has been absent,” he said. “That’s who I’m running against.”

Noem accused Varilek of launching the committee attendance attacks as a distraction.

“My commitment is very clear to South Dakota’s Native Americans,” Noem said. “I believe Matt’s launching these attacks because he doesn’t want to talk about the real issues in the race and his lack of solutions for them.”

Noem highlighted work she’s done for Native Americans in Congress, including a bill rejecting federal labor regulation on reservations, her support for a provision giving protections to Native American women in the Violence Against Women Act and an amendment in the farm bill creating a tribal relations office in the Agriculture Department.

Representatives of several South Dakota tribes did not respond to messages Wednesday seeking comment.

Noem also released a statement from Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, and the chairman of the Indian affairs subcommittee, defending Noem. In the statement, Young said many of the subcommittee meetings “have focused on parochial issues” and that “Noem cannot be in two places at once.”

The attack on Noem’s attendance at Indian affairs subcommittee meetings builds on a narrative South Dakota Democrats have pushed for several months, since releasing research claiming Noem had missed many meetings of the House Agriculture Committee.

“We only have one voice in the U.S. House,” Varilek said. “There is no backup. If that one voice is not speaking, then ... the people of South Dakota are not being heard.”

Noem disputes many of the claims about her attendance at Agriculture Committee meetings and says she’s worked hard to pass a farm bill.

On Nov. 6, voters will choose whether to elect Noem to a second term in the House or replace her with Varilek.